Verified answer

The United States has the best credit rating of any other country in the world because it has always found a way to pay off its debts and has never defaulted. Because other countries do not have the same credit history as us, we often have an easier time finding lenders than them. Because of this, as we accrue debt and are unwilling to pay it back, we simply find a different lender that we can rollover our debt to. If worse comes to worse, and we are unable to find an investor willing to pay back our debt, we can simply print more money to do so. Though this would greatly devalue our dollar, it's still a possibility. Greece's economy is backed by the Euro and as such, they are unable to print their own money in order to pay off their massive debt obligations. This is why other countries such as Germany are seen as having to "bail out" Greece, whereas the US simply continues to "borrow" more money, roll their debt over, and continue to borrow again.

The difference is that foreign creditors want to put their money in the United States.

None of them want to invest in Greece anymore.

So essentially, the bailouts are monies that EU countries are "investing" in Greece as a favor to that country. The EU countries themselves are playing the role of investor since all the private investors got spooked away.

The difference is that the Greek economy is small enough that the European Union and the IMF have the money to bail them out

Should the United States fail our economy is so big that no one has the ability to bail us out, and we are taking the rest of the world down with us.

In both cases excessive socialist spending and generous entitlements are the cause of the problem

Greece doesn't produce anything. The United States produces quite a bit.

People "want" to loan money to the United States.

Nobody is buying Greek debt.

Since the US dollar has nothing backing it, debt can always be paid back.